Bill to Curb Noise Voted by Congress In Its Final Hours

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 (AP) —Just before the 92d Congress ended, a retiring member's final act in the House enabled environmentalists to send President Nixon a bill that could help Americans to enjoy a quieter future.

After twice refusing to go along with maneuvers in the last hours of the session, Representative Durward G. Hall, Republican of Missouri, finally gave up his lone stand against a bill to muffle noise.

The House, immediately followed by the Senate, shouted its approval last night and sent the antinoise legislation to the White House. The Administration has endorsed the effort to curb noise nationwide.

With Congress just hours from adjournment, the money authorized for the program over three years was reduced from $35‐million to $21 million. The most controversial part of the original Senate bill —a ban on landings by supersonic passenger aircraft in the United States—had already been deleted.

Under the bill, the Environmental Protection Agency would set standards on noise from construction and transportation machinery, motors and engines and electronic and electric equipment. Citizen suits could be brought against the Government or others who failed to follow mandatory requirements.

The law would allow fines of $25,000 a day for, violations and a year in prison.

Officials estimated that at least 80 million Americans were affected to a measurable degree by equipment noise, half of them risking hearing trouble by long exposure.

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A version of this archives appears in print on October 20, 1972, on Page 23 of the New York edition with the headline: Bill to Curb Noise Voted by Congress In Its Final Hours. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe